Monday, October 29, 2012

This is a good, brief, summary for
those who are not exactly sure what all the hype is about regarding the
“Tex Tapes." This will fill in the blanks. Casey Jordan seems to be more capable of having a reasonable conversation about this subject than most I have heard in a major media interview. I don’t think that there will be anything new on these tapes
personally, but if I am wrong?? Information which could have made a difference,
and given some answers to people who have been desperately searching for them- would have been right
there locked away all these years??

I am currently reading a biogaphy on Cass Elliot called "Dream a Little Dream of Me".
It was written by a British author by the name of Eddi Fiegel in 2005:

In contrast to the TV show, the Bubblegum album was a hit, but Cass's enjoyment of its success was to be short-lived. On August 9, 1969,Cass's friend actress Sharon Tate and three of her friends were savagely murdered at the house Tate and her husband Roman Polanski had been renting on Cielo Drive, just minutes away from Woodrow Wilson. The bodies were riddled with one hundred and two stab wounds and were found surrounded by vast reservoirs of blood. Cass had known Sharon and all three of the other victims: celebrity hairdresser Jay Sebring, Woytek Frykowski, an old school friend of Polanski's, and Frykowski's girlfriend Abigail Folger, heiress to the Folger coffee fortune. (I guess this author forgot about poor Steven Parent, the fourth victim) The openness of Hollywood society at the time had led to a previously unprecedented crossover between the film and rock communities; if you were successful and hip in either one or the other or at least good friends with someone who was, you were just as likely to end up at a film star's house for the evening as rock star's. Cass's prominence in the upper eccelons of the Los Angeles social scene meant she was friends with rock stars such as Crosby, Nash, Stills, Eric Clapton, plus assorted Beatles and Stones, but also Warren Beatty, Roger Vadim, Jane Fonda, Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate, Mike Sarne, Dennis Hopper, and Peter Fonda.

(I am skipping around, because a lot of it is long-winded and repetitive, but I will add in the parts that were relevant to the Manson thing)

The murders therefore certainly came as just a shock to her. "It scared the hell out of her," remembers Lee Kiefer. "It scared the hell out of all of us cause it was happening right next to us and it pretty much shook up the whole Hollywood scene."

Having regularly played host to some of the less decorous characters on the scene, Cass was subjected to particularly intensive questioning by the police. Apart from having known the victims-Cass was further implicated by association. When the bodies of the victims had been discovered, the police had found the word PIG blurrily scrawled on the wall of the house in blood. John Phillips had informed the police of the widely circulating theory that what had been written was in fact PIC--in reference to Pic Dawson. Some believed this could directly point to his guilt. (I skipped again, because this author didn't have her facts straight, and she goes on to state that Folger and Frykowski used to pick up young guys on Sunset Strip, blah, blah, blah)NEXT...
Eventually, after months of rumor an speculation, both Doyle and Dawson were cleared of suspicion and Charles Manson, a thirty-five-year-old ex-convict, fraud, pimp, and conman with a Jesus fixation, and his "family" of (mostly young and female) followers were revealed as the murderers. (Just to note, this author never mentions Tex) Manson had a talent for attracting the young and dispossessed and he had somehow manage to brainwash his acolytes into accompanying him on his nihilistic quest for supposed salvation and power through murder. Manson and his followers had been frequent visitors to Cass's house, taking advantage, like so many others, of the plentiful food, drugs, and generally laid-back, hospitable atmosphere. But Cass was not the only one who played host to him and his acolytes, unaware of what would ensue. Although in the aftermath of the murders, few woud admit to any link, many prominent figures in the Los Angeles rock community had not only socialized with Manson and company--particularly his harem of young women, who made themselves readily available to anyone who was interested--but developed closer associations with them. As Neil Young later remembered, "A lot of pretty well known musicians around L.A. knew Manson, though they'd probably deny it now. The girls were always around too. They'd be right there on the couch with me, singing a song."

Sunday, October 28, 2012

We've discussed a little about who can be definitively placed in the Ukiah area on or before October of 1968. Deb mentioned this in the previous thread and sent me these articles to support it.

This Ukiah Daily Journal article from March 26, 1968 placed Dean Moorehouse in the area:

Ok, so this thing for me at least has just taken a turn for the weird with this article. It's the Ukiah Daily Journal from May 10, 1968. It places Brooks Poston in Mendocino County during that time in the company of... Reverend Jim Jones. Yes, THAT Reverend Jim Jones...

(This is the Poston section of the article cropped for easier reading):

The third article is about the attorneys assigned to the girls in Mendocino County. It says that Ella Jo Bailey aka Ella Beth Sinder was released on her own recognizance to have surgery. Interestingly, the attorney representing her was Tim O'Brien, the same attorney that months later represented Don Dulaney.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Salem - Barbara Ellen Beausoleil, 65, was born in
Mineola, NY, to John and Jane Baston, one of 2 children. Her family
lived for a time in Rhode Island, Texas and Long Island, settling in
Woodstock, NY, in 1961. She later lived and raised her children in
Connecticut.

Barbara was loved and cherished by all who knew her, and left this world
suddenly and unexpectedly. She was an amazing mother, sister, wife and
grandmother, but those were only some of her outstanding attributes.
Beyond that, she was a consummate artist. She received her BFA from
Boston University and was a very talented painter. Barbara also loved
music, teaching herself the guitar and piano. Another source of great
joy was dancing, which she began to explore when she lived in
Connecticut. After studying the art of tribal style belly dance, she
joined a dance troupe in California, where she lived from 1979 - 2000.
One of her other accomplishments while in California, was achieving journeyman status as a carpenter when working on the restoration of the
neoclassical state capital where she displayed her talents as a skilled
craftsperson.

After settling in Oregon in 2001, she began teaching dance and
eventually started her own dance troupe, Raks Sarama. Barbara also
excelled at drumming for this style of dance. Gardening, beekeeping,
sewing and knitting were all passions, and her love of animals was an
intrinsic part of her nature. Her family was very proud of all her
accomplishments, and anyone who knew her was impressed with all the
special qualities that encompassed the beautiful soul that was Barbara.

She had a profound influence on friends, family and even casual
acquaintances. Barbara was and always will be a shining example of how a
person can live in peace, harmony, and freedom. She gave more than she
took, she loved more than she feared, and she nurtured everything and
everybody around her. We will remember Barbara as a woman of strength,
courage, compassion, and wisdom – a true Mother Goddess, treading softly
yet powerfully upon this Earth.

The first half is about another murder totally unrelated to the Warren Dulaney case.

On the rainy morning of October 14th, 1968, six miles south of Ukiah, a seven-year-old boy ran out of his trailer home and found his mother dead in the wet ground outside the front door. The boy ran for his grandmother's trailer nearby. She was dead too, garroted like the boy's mother with a pair of long leather boot laces.

The seven-year-old was Johnny Ussery whose younger brothers Lane, 5, and Brett, 4, were still asleep. The three boys were from Clyda's first marriage to a logger named John Ussery of Eugene, Oregon. Clyda had left Ussery for Don Dulaney, a Ukiah-based CHP officer twice her age. She was pregnant with Dulaney's child when she was murdered.

Clyda's former husband was quickly eliminated as a suspect when it was verified that he'd been in Medford, Oregon at the time of the murders.

Finding his mother and his grandmother dead, Johnny had calmly returned to his trailer to get his younger brothers dressed, then, his two little brothers in tow, the three boys trudged south to the home of Don Torell where Johnny told Mr. and Mrs. Torell that "Mommy and Grandma are dead."

A swarm of deputies led by Sheriff Reno Bartolomie was soon on the scene.

The sole witness to the previous night's mayhem, which occurred in a driving rain that obliterated the footprints assumed to have surround Clyda Dulaney's outdoors corpse, was Mrs. Warren's miniature dachshund.

The two dead women were fully clothed. They'd both been brutally beaten about the face before they'd been strangled with brand new hightop leather boot laces, two turns of which had been pulled tight around the neck before the laces were knotted in back.

Mrs. Warren operated Nancy's Antique Sales on Highway 101 south of Burke Hill o the two-lane portion of the highway about where the strawberry fields and sales stand are today.

Clyda Dulaney was a graduate of Ukiah High School who, only months before, had left her husband for officer Dulaney, 49, a man several years older than her father.

Clyda's former husband had been engaged in a bitter custody dispute with Clyda for his three boys. Mr. Ussery said Clyda had deserted him and the boys for Dulaney, evidence, he insisted, that Clyda was unstable and therefore not a fit mother.

Robbery was the apparent motive. A metal cash box had been rifled and left on a table although a plastic box and glass jar containing approximately $300 in cash rested in plain sight in a closet of the older woman's trailer.

Officer Dulaney lived in Ukiah with a teenage daughter from his previous marriage while Clyda and her children lived on her grandmother's property at the south end of Burke Hill. Dulaney said they lived apart while he looked for a house in the Ukiah area that would accommodate him, his pregnant new wife Clyda, her three boys and his daughter. When Clyda gave birth to their child, Dulaney would be supporting a family of seven, and he said he wanted a house big enough for all of them.

Dulaney was in Sacramento for a special CHP training course when his new wife and her grandmother were found dead. The investigative assumption from the beginning was that the two women were murdered after he was either in Sacramento or on the road there.

The CHP officer told the Sheriff's office that he dropped his wife and stepchildren at Nancy's Antique Shop at 9:30 the previous night with the intention of continuing on to Sacramento. But, he said, he'd forgotten his uniform, so he returned to his Ukiah apartment, picked up the uniform and continued on to Sacramento via Highway 20 east where he signed in at the Academy at 1:45am.

A neighbor said she saw a blue pickup truck leaving an orchard near the antique shop about 8:15 the morning the women were found. She said fiver persons "wearing hippie-type clothing" were in the vehicle.

Dulaney, 49, who was described as genuinely distraught by investigators, quickly returned to Ukiah.

"The only information I had was what I had read in the newspapers," Dulaney told the Ukiah Daily Journal at the time. He said he and his expanded family had been watching The Wonderful World of Disney at Dulaney's Ukiah apartment before he, Clyda and the boys headed south for Clyda Dulaney's trailer six miles to the south. The family had left Ukiah about 8:45. Dulaney said he dropped his wife and the three boys off at their temporary home and headed for Sacramento where he was scheduled to begin a CHP refresher course the next day, Monday morning. Dulaney said that he had reached Highway 20 before remembering that he had failed to bring his uniform. He then returned to Ukiah, picked up his uniform, and resumed his trip to Sacramento where he logged in at 1:45am.

Dulaney hired Timothy O'Brien, a Ukiah attorney who often represented law enforcement people. O'Brien, who soon afterwards became a superior court judge, said that Dulaney had been "deeply concerned over any false impression which might have been gained regarding his cooperation with the Sheriff's Department following the death of his wife and child."

O'Brien helped Dulaney with his statement for the police.

"When the statement was completed, I signed it," Dulaney said. "There was no lack of consideration."

Sheriff Bartolomie said he interviewd 35 suspects, referring in one newspaper account to "the hamstrings of the Warren Court" which, the Sheriff suggested, had prevented him from detaining a trio of roaming purse-snatchers who'd robbed a Ukiah matron in the days prior to the Burke Hill nurders. The Sheriff thought the three transients could well have murdered the two women, but lacking evidence to hold them, sent them on their itinerant way.

A year later, in 1969, following the gruesome killings of Sharon Tate and friends in Los Angeles, Bartolomie said he thought the Manson Family may have also been responsible for the unsolved murders of Clyda Dulaney and Mrs. Warren. The Sheriff said both the Tate murders and the two murders south of Ukiah were "in the senseless category."

And the Manson Family had been in Mendocino County at the time of the Dulaney and Warren murders.

Seven persons belonging to a nomadic cult were arrested on drug charges in Navarro in the Anderson Valley on June 22, 1968. Susan Denise Atkins, 19, aka Sadie Mae Glutz, was among those arrested. Additionally, "Several Mansonites were guests of a Ukiah man at his home off Boonville Road," reported the Ukiah Daily Journal.

But there was never any evidence linking the Manson Family or Dulaney or Clyda Dulaney's former husband to the crime.

Someone or someone's came in off 101 in the night, took the money they could see, strangled the two women they found there, and continued their journey to whatever unlucky destination called them.

Friday, October 26, 2012

The triple murder of Nancy Warren, Clyda Dulaney and her unborn child has captivated my interest ever since I learned of it. I research unsolved murders mainly from the late'60's into the '70's. I have done research for authors, news reporters and a documentary maker since I retired a few years ago. I don't do the research to make a living at it, that's for sure, but do it to help finance the non-paying research that I do. My focus is awareness, some of these old unsolved cases can't be solved unless people are aware the murders have never come to a resolution. Somebody, somewhere, knows something about each one of the unsolved cases but if they think that a case has already been solved or that it's been so long that nobody cares they are not going to come forward. Today's forensics make it possible to take a fresh look at the evidence. Many older cases have been solved across the nation, I have hopes that these cases, too, will be solved.

There are two main known suspects in this case, Donald Dulaney and the Manson Family. These murders could have been committed by someone else entirely, of course, but we can only consider these two at the moment.

Don Dulaney as a suspect is not unreasonable. There are pros and cons with him, the main con, I believe, would be that he was a cop. Would a cop kill his wife and child plus her grandmother just to get out from under any responsibility to them? Seems like an awfully big chance for him to take. Why kill Clyda's grandmother, too, if what he wanted was to rid of Clyda?

I've never been able to locate a marriage record for Dulaney and Clyda and don't think they were really married. She did use his last name but she was pregnant and living in small town Ukiah with family in the community. It may have been less of a stigma to say they were married. If they weren't married the most Dulaney would have been on the hook for is child support if he were to break the relationship off. I have been able to locate other marriage related records for Dulaney, his divorce from his first wife and his Nevada marriage to a woman about three years after Clyda died. I could find no marriage for Clyda and Dulaney though.

Johnny felt that Dulaney may have wanted to get rid of his mother because she had three young boys that he didn't want to support. In 1972 Dulaney married a woman who was 19 years his junior with three young daughters so I don't think that the children were an issue and told him so. He did not know about that. I asked Johnny if he remembered living with Dulaney and he said no he does not believe they ever did. He only remembers living at the grandmother's trailer after his parents divorced. That to me is also a clue that they may not have been married.

On the other hand, Dulaney's alibi for that night and subsequent later actions absolutely suck! But wouldn't a cop come up with a better alibi than the one he gave or have planned the murder for a time when he was not expected to be in Sacramento where dozens of other cops were suppose to be and where he would not be required to sign in so as to be able to give himself a little more wiggle room in the timeline?

Dulaney delayed speaking with detectives after the murders and lawyered-up almost immediately. He also took his time signing his statement to law enforcement once it was typed up. There was no mention of marks or scratches on Dulaney in the newspaper reports. It was reported, however, that Nancy Warren put up the fiercest struggle of the two women and that she had "physical evidence" under her fingernails.

Some members of the Manson Family were in the right place at the right time to have committed these murders. Later actions have demonstrated that that they were not above killing a pregnant woman. It would be in keeping with the Family not to kill the children. Two male Does and one female Doe were named in the civil suit filed by the Warren family, an odd combination at a time when not many females were thought to be aggressors in concert with males in crimes involving murder. The Manson Family sure changed that line of thinking. The civil suit was filed just before a one year statutory deadline to file such cases, before there was a hint of any Manson Family involvement in the Tate LaBianca murders.

Bugliosi's prosecution of Manson depended on him showing the jury that the others, Watson, Krenwinkel, Van Houton and Atkins acted under the direct influence of Manson. If murders were committed by the Family outside of Manson's direct influence, Bugliosi's case against Manson may not have gone so well. Could the Warren Dulaney murders have been swept under the rug to insure Bugliosi's prosecution of Manson?

Mendocino County Sheriff Bartolomie made an immediate connection to the possibility of the Family involvement as reported in the December 4, 1969 Ukiah Daily Journal once he learned of their activities in Southern California. He asked for samples of leather thongs be forwarded to him in the event any were found to be in the possession of Family members. As reported in a October 14, 1969 Press Democrat article the leather thongs used to kill the women were both exactly 36 1/2 inches long with a particular oil on them. That length of thong was unusual, the article states, and not an off the rack size for a bootlace. I seem to recall that the Family was friends with a leather maker in the San Jose area, Victor Wild, who I believe made Manson's leathers. Could the thongs have come from him?

I know that police reports are far better than newspaper articles when trying to figure out the who, what when, where and why of a murder case but it looks like articles are all we have to work with right now. What are some of your thoughts about who committed these murders?

Thursday, October 25, 2012

UKIAH - In the early morning drizzle of Oct 14, 1968 three small boys awake to the ceaseless ringing of their mother's alarm clock.

It was 7:30 a.m. and that was the time Johnny Ussery, 7, and his brothers, Lane, 5 and Brett, 4, usually got up and were taken to Hopland School by their grandmother.

But there would be no school for the boys that day as they stepped from their trailer home along highway 101 six miles south of Ukiah to find their mother brutally beaten and strangled to death with a leather thong.

Clyda Dulaney, 24, wife of a California Highway Patrolman was lying on the ground near the trailer door.

The grisly find was not complete, however, until the boys ran next door to find their grandmother, Nancy Warren, 65, beaten and strangled in the same manner.

Sheriff-Coroner Reno H. Bartolomie said a triple murder had been committed since Mrs. Dulaney's unborn baby was eight months along and considered legally a human being.

The boys ran hundreds of yards across a field to their nearest neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. T. Torell.

Mrs. Torell called the Mendocino County Sheriff's office and waited with the boys at her house until deputies arrived.

Puzzling to lawmen was the fact that nothing was taken from either trailer by the murderer and the nearby antique shop that Mrs. Warren owned had not been entered.

Today, even though the victims' trailers are gone and the antique shop empty, the murder scene, which lies about 300 feet from the highway, still holds an aura of mystery and provides conversation from passing motorists. Sheriff Bartolomie admits his men are no closer to solving the murder than they were the morning the bodies were found.

A great many questions are still unanswered in the slaying and Sheriff Bartolomie said the biggest problem in his investigation is answering the question - Why?

"We don't have one bit of evidence", he said, "and we don't have any motive. If we could come up with a motive, it might make it a lot easier, but we don't even have a circumstantial evidence case against a possible suspect."

Top Priority

Sheriff Bartolomie has labeled the case "top priority" and has assigned his top man to it with instructions to "drop everything" when a new lead comes up.

That man is Senior Investigator Earl Friend, who joined the department in 1956 and became an investigator in 1960. Since then he has worked on the Braun and Maine murder case, the Hopland Bank robbery and the Charles Ray murder investigation.

And while Mendocino County authorities have spent hundreds of man-hours in the last year checking new leads and suspects, the family of the slain women have offered a $1000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer, or killers.

Suit Filed

Friday, a suit was filed in Mendocino County Superior Court by the relatives asking $20,000 general damages, funeral expenses and "punitive damages in a reasonable sum."

The action was filed against fictitious persons - "John Doe, Richard Doe and Jane Doe" - in a highly unusual legal move to keep the civil case open, since the statute of limitations would expire tomorrow.

Morris Mawson, Santa Rosa attorney representing the children of Mrs. Namcy Warren, said that the sole purpose in filing the case but admitted it may never get past the preliminary stage unless lawmen identify and charge a suspect who can be served with a copy of the complaint.

He made the move on behalf of Edna M. Miller, Modesto; Catherine C. Hjertberg, Maryland; Nancy V. Stephan, Santa Rosa; and Clyde Warren, Ukiah; and said he has not talked with Mendocino County authorities or to Ukiah attorneys representing the family.

The suit, filed in civil court, also opens another possibility, which might open a wide swath through the case, in that Mr. Mawson said he may later seek Superior Court permission to take depositions from key witnesses under oath.

The filing of a suit against an unknown defendant is unusual enough and a number of attorneys, including Mendocino County District Attorney Duncan James doubted it could be done. However, taking depositions from possible witnesses before a defendant has been served with a complaint is even more unusual.

Mr. Mawson told a Press Democrat reporter he still had not decided definitely on that step, but said there was a good chance a judge would grant him permission under the circumstances and "to preserve testimony" from the large number of key witnesses.

The route that civil action takes differs in great part from the road being followed by lawmen, but both lead to the same goal - identification of the murderer and conviction.

As sheriff's officers work on various theories that answer questions in the case, they also try to develop a mental profile of the suspect and the reason for the killing.

Sheriff Bartolomie said he talked with Mendocino State Hospital psychiatrists in the early stages of the investigation and they told him the killer "would have to be a homicidal maniac, or so mentally disturbed that you can't come up with a reason why he did it."

Investigator Friend says he does not understand "how a normal person can live with this on his conscience."

He said prints are on file with Sacramento technicians, as well as Federal Bureau of Investigations laboratories, and although efforts to identify them has thus far failed, every reported murder suspect arrested under suspicious circumstances that tend to match those in the Ukiah slaying are checked for possible identification.

Sheriff Bartolomie said the prints were left in Mrs. Warren's trailer by an unknown person, because early in the case all relatives, friends and visitors to the scene of the crime were fingerprinted and checked out. None matched, leaving the conclusion the prints belong to the murderer.

And while that theory leads to a theory of burglary, Sheriff Bartolomie said after a sales slip was found for a jewelry box reported missing by relatives his officers have been unable to find anything else missing.

Sheriff Bartolomie said Mrs. Warren's purse was not disturbed, although it lay on a table just above the spot where she lay on the floor of her trailer when found and that more than $500 in cash was laying in plain view in her bedroom which was also not disturbed.

The second most important bit of evidence recovered from the scene is the leather thongs used to kill the two women- both exactly 36 1/2 inches long, an unusual length which has still not been traced by state technicians.

The thongs are being analyzed, particularly the oil in them, to find a further lead and that an initial study of them is soon to be repeated in the hopes of turning up something new.

There is strong reason to believe two people were involved in the slaying because both women seemed to have dropped on the spot where they were struck and there is very little signs of a struggle indicating they may have been held while attacked.

Mrs. Warren put up the fiercest struggle Investigator Friend said and "physical evidence" recovered from her fingernails shows she may have left a mark on her assailant however until State crime technicians have a suspect to match that with it offers little in helping solve the crime.

Investigator Friend is also somewhat disturbed by the lack of "panic" at the scene. He said there was no evidence the killer went berserk and committed the murder in a violent rage.

"A killer who panics wouldn't use leather thongs to commit murder," he points out in support of his theory that a homicidal maniac is the murderer, or else the killer went to the scene with premeditated murder in mind and was prepared.

Without new evidence and no motive, Investigator Friend is relying heavily on the 12,000 bulletins sent out to every law enforcement agency in the nation for a possible connection to other cases.

These contain the details of the Ukiah murder, three photos showing Mrs. Warren's antique shop, one of the victims and the knot used to prevent the thongs from slipping, as well as the address and phone number of the Mendocino County Sheriff's office.

Investigator Friend said he has received hundreds of phone calls, teletypes and letters from agencies across the nation and all possible leads have been checked carefully and dismissed- thus far.

Sheriff Bartolomie says, "We'll find this man. I think someone will pick up someone and he'll attempt suicide while in jail and we'll be able to tie him in to our murder."

With 34 years in the Mendocino county Sheriff's office, 15 years of that time as sheriff, he says, "this one has us bothered and we're frustrated by it. I wake up during the night thinking about it," but he apparently has not dismissed his chance of solving the mystery.

Investigator Friend is also confident and his enthusiasm mounts at each new report of a possible suspect, and he said copies of the bulletin will be sent to any agencies that request them.

"We just keep looking for similarities" in new leads that are reported and until the right one comes along, "the only thing we have to work with is our own hunches and police ingenuity. We'll just keep checking everything we find relating to the case."

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

“I’d love
to find out who killed my mother and grandmother”,he told
me. "Many others do as well", I replied
back.

We are sitting in his kitchen - Johnny Ussery, his wife and me.We had just settled in. In my anxious and
nervous state, I had showed up a little early. Johnny was still getting dressed
when we shook hands. His wife had let me in, and warned me about the dogs, but
so far they hadn’t smelled our cats on my clothes. We all said our hello's. I went reviewed for him the posts that Patty, Matt and Liz had done on his family. I mentioned Patty specifically as one person who has done so much research on what happened to his mother and grandmother. In a perfect world, it would be Patty here talking with him, as she knows so much more than I. But geography being what it is, it's me. I had my tape recorder and
my laptop this time to take better care of getting his feelings and words in
the most accurate way possible for a rookie like myself. I also had a couple of
beers and, with the first shot of Coors-lite sliding down my mouth and into my
stomach, I finally was starting to settle down. So I began by telling him
about Alisa and Brie. He had not ever heard of them. I explained what Brie had been through, and gave him a copy of Restless Souls. I spent a few seconds on Doris and the impact she made. After briefing him on the Tate family and other books on the case in general, Johnny brought
up Helter Skelter. He knew exactly what page of the book mentioned his mother
and grandmother. He asked me if it would be possible to get him a copy, and I promised
to send one right away. I took a few seconds to make sure he understood how to approach Bug's story and motivations with a fair amount of open eyes and mind. Then I brought out some of the old newspaper
articles about his mother and grandmother, including a 40 year anniversary piece printed in 2008. Johnny had
never seen any of them, and asked me to send copies of all of them with the book. He took a very long look at the first one I showed him, which had faded
black and white pictures of his mother and grandmother…

“Is this
mom and grandma?”(He is squinting, holding the printout of
the photo very close to his face)

I told him it was.

“Well, you
can barely see this”.(The photos were rough to begin with, and
as Johnny has no internet, I had to print some of them out. I was only able to
show him saved copies and printed articles.)

Then Johnny’s wife showed me the few pictures they had of Johnny and his
brothers, as well as the only photograph of his mother that he can locate - a wedding
photo of her and his father, John Ussery. We looked over the newspaper
clippings and his family photos for a few minutes with a somewhat nostalgic
feeling hanging in the air. Although the subject matter was very dark, I still
feel it seemed to have somehow comforted him in a way to be surrounded by images and
thoughts of his mother and grandmother, albeit in such a tragic
way.

We both needed another beer by now. So we opened another round and then we
got down to business. I had names to ask about, and names to give. We had been
contacted recently by Deb Silva who has done extensive research on this case
and is credited in one of the newspaper articles Johnny and I had just
read.She has done various things
in her past that make her qualified to assist him if he decided he
wanted to open, or re-open, that can of worms. Deb has expertise in these matters,
which would benefit Johnny greatly. Deb has also been in contact the publisher of a newspaper out in Anderson County, California. Should Johnny want to do so, Deb could put
him in touch with those back in California who understand the channels
necessary to possibly put the ball in motion. But first, I need to make sure
Johnny is wanting to go back down that very dark road. He started with a question for me....

“What do
you feel when you’re looking across from a guy like me?”

What a way to start.“Sort of like I am looking at a legend in a
way," I answered him.“Surreal,” I
offered as well.

“I am far
from a legend. Let’s just put it that way. You’re somebody who is fascinated by
it all, but were just real people like everyone else. You know in your post you
said mom and grandma were stabbed to death. They weren’t. They were beaten and
strangled to death.”

(I can’t believe I made that type of mistake,
but acknowledge and apologize.) I tell him that the Tate Labianca crimes were similar and the victims were stabbed in those crimes..."Yeah but in that case they know Manson did it. In my mom's case they don't know that Manson did it."

We both agree though that it couldn't be ruled out.I read some of the email questions including
asking about a specific Aunt XXXX (Not the same as the “crazy aunt” from first
interview), and gave some family information from Deb Silva…

“I would
love to be able to get in contact with Deb Silva.” I don’t know who XXXX is. I
would love to call my dad right now and ask about this person. Let me call
him.”

At this
point Johnny calls his father, John Ussery. I can clearly hear the voice in the
background when his brother Lane answers the first call, and as well when John
Ussery himself calls back…

“Hey
Daddy.... Lost him....” (He calls back) Hello. I gotcha now. Hey, uh, do you know...do
I have any aunt XXXX…

He repeats name, and in background I hear his
father say he never heard of her.

“He
never heard of her.”

He relays
me. I wait for him to go on…

“Hey Daddy
I’m talking to this guy right now who is involved in that Manson
thing, and we're looking back to see. There is a whole bunch of people who are
interested in things that happened in 1968 and 1969 and things like that. And
one day I was looking at it, and I saw my name mentioned. I typed in there, 'Hi I
am the 8 year old boy who found those two women, and I’m 52 years old and I am
o.k.' And, it’s kind of strange that so
many people are interested in it, and a whole shit storm started from
there.Now I am sitting here in my house
with a gentleman who lives in Fort Lauderdale who is showing me a bunch of stuff
mentioning XXXX, who is supposedly your sister, but I've never heard of this
woman. Anyway, there is this lady, who if I want her to help me find these people, can get a hold of them. I am going to let Saint, who is sitting here, go ahead
and let this lady get hold of us and see what she can do. Anyway this guy
sitting here has a computer and he is sincere about what he is doing. He has a
bunch of old pictures and articles about my mother and Nancy Warren. I am going
to go ahead and let them see what they can do. Hey Daddy, I am looking for -and
so is Saint here- of a good picture of my mother. Do you have one?No, me either. I thought I sent everything I had to
you. I know YYYY has a bunch of stuff but she won’t talk to me….”

I could hear Johnny's dad in the background ask if Johnny really wanted to talk to her? We all laughed at that. At this
point Johnny said goodbye to his father, and tried again to reach the “Crazy
Aunt” from our first interview. It went to voice mail. I told Johnny that Deb
would be able to help him clear this up. I also needed to clear up the exact
age of Johnny and if he remembers anything about the birthday just prior to his
tragedy, or his stepfather...

“October 8,
1960. I had just turned 8 years old. In 1978 I went back to get
hypnotized - that’s how they tried to do it. They took me back year by year by
birthday, trying to get me to remember things I liked and happy times. But I don’t remember the birthday before the murders. I also don’t
remember Dulaney from Adam. I mean, nothing about him.”

As well, when I pointed out that it may not have been Dulaney's daughter who killed herself with his gun as Johnny had told me in our first conversation,but another step-daughter who had done it, he seemed surprised and totally unaware of this person. "No I did not know her. From what I understand it was from a marriage that happened after my mother died. I was told about it in the 90's and just assumed it was his daughter. In fact I would be kind of intrigued about his real daughter if she is still alive. I would love to talk to her, but I doubt she would want to talk to me since I publicly accused her father of killing my mother."

I asked him
if he had any recollection of life with his real father, or times before the
crimes, and he didn’t have much…

“Nope that
is all gone. I remember Daddy coming to visit and it was always like Christmas
when he showed up. That is what I remember. We always got so excited when Daddy
was coming. He would bring us presents and stuff. That's what I remember.”

He seemed very pleased at the memory. Maybe we should leave it at that is what I am thinking. I know
Johnny works very hard and had, in fact, worked all morning before I got to his
house. I didn’t want to take up too much of his time. My job was done. I had delivered him the
things he was unable to receive by email. I made a promise to send him the few items he requested. I made the plan to get him in touch with Deb Silva. I
started to pack up my things.Johnny’s
wife asked him to tell me about the one thing other thing they thought I should
know…

“Grandma
Nancy always kept a gun in the kitchen - in a drawer next to the sink. When
someoneknocked she would take it to the
door. If she knew the person she would put the gun in a cabinet she kept next
to the door before answering it. After the murder they found the gun in
the cabinet next to the door. I don’t know if maybe she hadn’t just forgot it
was there from the last time she put it in there, or if maybe that night the person who
came over was someone she knew.”

I took my pad back out and made that very interesting note. And now,
Johnny asks me what is next and where this is going to go? I told him then what
I am telling you now….

I don’t
know. This is beyond me now. I have taken Johnny as far as this train can go.
He is in the hands of professionals now. We have done our best to put him
together with those who can help him find his answers. Deb Silva will be
updating us on their efforts, and where they may lead. I only wish there was more I could do. I was very privileged to
meet a real survivor. Johnny Ussery has lived through something most of us can
never imagine. Violent tragedy to the one person he needed more than anyone else. He has had to endure the added grief of never understanding why it had to
happen. We spent some time talking about his life since, and like most of
us, it has had its stumbles, and ups and downs, but he has made it through and is standing tall today. He is married to a very nice woman whom he appeared to love deeply. He went out of his way to tell me how special she was. For a guy who has been through so much, to demonstrate a heart so big, was a very satisfying thing to see. So, let's all hope for the best... times have changed much since
1968. There are things available today that were not around back
then. For the first time in a long time there is some hope. Hope
that this man can get some kind of answer to a question almost 45 years old.
Who could do such an ugly thing? And why? It may still be a very long shot to ever find out, but now Johnny is at least pointed in the right direction if he chooses to aim. I think as a society we owe people like this whatever help we can give them. Maybe sometimes we can even get personally involved to do just a little bit more. In a world where people are capable of
doing evil things like this in the first place, if we can’t count on each other to look out for one another....God
help us all.

I’m leaving now, and almost to my car. Johnny and his wife are in the driveway
saying goodbye.

“Hey Saint
you know how I know you’re a good guy? In all the time we have been here this
is the first time someone ever came here and the dogs didn’t go crazy.”

I don't think this weed is working... Maybe I should have taken a Xanax. I should feel high as hell right now, and all I feel is scared out of my Goddamn mind. What am I doing here? How did I get into this? Sigh.... 6 years ago I was sitting in an office cubicle bored beyond belief, and I stumbled into the online world of the Manson Family blogging. A private, quiet hobby developed and somehow it grew into???? I don’t even know what. Now I am sitting in my car out in the street across from Johnny Ussery's house. He is expecting me. In a minute, I have to get out of my car and go up to knock on the door. Have I taken this whole thing too far?

The line between fantasy and reality is about to be crossed in my little world, and I am so not sure I am ready to do it. These are crimes and names from a very long time ago. Like most - I know them only from old articles and wiki searches. These people exist in the memories and archives of newspapers and back dated police blotters. The theories and conspiracies get tossed around like old tales at the campfire.

Until today. Now it gets real. Oh man and I mean real. What is inside that house? What is waiting for me, and will I be ready? What if it is Chris Hanson and he thinks I am a predator??? Wait a minute… Maybe the weed is working a little.

Calm down Saint… breathe deep. Remember, I am here to help. I have information and contact information for people who can help Johnny. Eviliz has been contacted by people with information which might make some kind of difference. Smart, good people who are professionals at this sort of stuff. I am here to clear some things up, and to pass him on to those who can take him much further than I am capable of doing in his quest for the truth. My cause and purpose are right.

As well, I have a secret weapon in the car with me. I brought him the perfect gift. A copy of my very favorite book. It is the perfect thing to give in this situation. So apropos…

Finally, today I have a chance to make a difference. I wish it could be easier but we don’t always get to chose our circumstances. Sometimes they choose us. These circumstances leave us with a choice. Either we can back down and shy away, or we can step up and seize the moment. We can define the circumstances or we can let them define us. Johnny had no choice in his circumstance. I do. I call myself the Saint of Circumstance. Time to put my money where my mouth is…..

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Welcome to an Eviliz chapter on the Ukiah Murders and the Manson Connection.

In May of 1968 a chain of events began that rocked Mendocino County, CA. Though unsolved to this day, the triple murder of Nancy Warren and Clyda Dulaney (and her unborn female baby) in October match the gruesome pattern of the Manson Family. The "Witches of Mendocino" arrests took place as documented in this Article dated June 24, 1968 placing key members of the Family close by. Could they have been involved? The next week or two will shed light. Please join us.

As you may remember, Manson sent a group of Family members up to Mendocino County to scout for a new permanent residence. This happened around May of 1968. Sadie, Mary and the gang were zealously trying to gain young recruits. They were dirty - they stunk and the bus stunk - and they were high profile with their drug use, even though they had infants in tow. The locals branded them the "Witches of Mendocino."

On June 21, 1968 they apparently dosed 17 year-old Allen Rosenthal. His mother called law enforcement. When they responded Allen was babbling about his legs being like snakes. Mom pointed the finger at the "Witches" and the raid mentioned in the above article was on...

Here's something we didn't know:

Boonville and the Anderson Valley has its own language called Boontling. Here's the wiki on it as well as a video. They're not a definitive on the language but they give us a good idea of how it works. The Wiki article has references if any of you care to learn more. We wonder if the Witches may have picked up on Boontling and used a variation they created themselves. ZuZu's for candy comes to mind. The Family was well known to cackle in a language that only those in the know would have any idea what they were talking about. Is this where it began?